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PFXVerifyPassword function (wincrypt.h)

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The PFXVerifyPassword function attempts to decode the outer layer of a BLOB as a Personal Information Exchange (PFX) packet and to decrypt it with the given password. No data from the BLOB is imported.

The PFX format is also known as the Public-Key Cryptography Standards #12 (PKCS #12) format.

Syntax

BOOL PFXVerifyPassword(
  [in] CRYPT_DATA_BLOB *pPFX,
  [in] LPCWSTR         szPassword,
  [in] DWORD           dwFlags
);

Parameters

[in] pPFX

A pointer to a CRYPT_DATA_BLOB structure that the function will attempt to decode as a PFX packet.

[in] szPassword

String password to be checked. For this function to succeed, this password must be exactly the same as the password used to encrypt the packet.

If you set this value to an empty string or NULL, this function typically attempts to decrypt the password embedded in the PFX BLOB by using the empty string or NULL.

However, beginning with Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, if a NULL or empty password was specified when the PFX BLOB was created and the application also specified that the password should be protected to an Active Directory (AD) principal, the Cryptography API (CAPI) randomly generates a password, encrypts it to the AD principal and embeds it in the PFX BLOB. The PFXVerifyPassword function will then try to use the specified AD principal (current user, computer, or AD group member) to decrypt the password. For more information about protecting PFX to an AD principal, see the pvPara parameter and the PKCS12_PROTECT_TO_DOMAIN_SIDS flag of the PFXExportCertStoreEx function.

When you have finished using the password, clear the password from memory by calling the SecureZeroMemory function. For more information about protecting passwords, see Handling Passwords.

[in] dwFlags

Reserved for future use.

Return value

The function return TRUE if the password appears correct; otherwise, it returns FALSE.

Requirements

Requirement Value
Minimum supported client Windows XP [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Minimum supported server Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps | UWP apps]
Target Platform Windows
Header wincrypt.h
Library Crypt32.lib
DLL Crypt32.dll